Oregon is blessed with a 120 mile long fertile river valley, boarded by Mountains on either side.
The agricultural richness of the valley is in part a result of the Missoula Floods, which inundated the valley approximately forty times between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age. The floods were caused by the periodic rupturing of the ice dam of Glacial Lake Missoula, the waters of which swept down the Columbia River and flooded the Willamette Valley as far south as Eugene. The floodwaters carried rich volcanic and glacial soil from Eastern Washington, which was deposited across the valley floor when the waters subsided. The soil in the Willamette Valley is half a mile deep in some areas.
During the 19th century, the valley was largely inhabited by bands of the Kalapuya tribe of Native Americans. The Hudson's Bay Company controlled the fur trade in the valley in the 1820s and 1830s.
The major agricultural products of the valley include many varieties of berries and vegetables. The valley also produces most of the grass seed, Christmas trees, and hazelnuts sold in North America. But it is greenhouse and nursery stock that have become the biggest agricultural commodity in the valley
Source:
Leave a comment